First run in 2017, the $20million The Everest has evolved into the race most trainers and owners want to win and as a result the quality and profile of the horses now aimed at this race is entirely different to how it started as pedigree shows the first three home this year are in fact milers, so where does that leave the one dimensional sprinters?
Joe Pride is on record as saying how keen he is to try Think About It over longer trips and after the son of So You Think won the Stradbroke at 1400m he would have been aiming up at an entirely different preparation this spring had it not been for The Everest.
Runner-up I Wish I Win is a typical son of Savabeel to look at and won the Group I ATC Golden Eagle at 1500m last spring. He probably would have given Fangirl a run for her money in the Group I ATC King Charles Stakes (1600m), but that race was worth $5million as opposed to The Everest at $20million and he got $2.9million for his second placing while Fangirl got $3million for her win.
Third placed Private Eye was also second last year and the son of Al Maher first rose to fame winning the Group II Queensland Guineas and Group I ATC Epsom Handicap at 1600m, before he reverted to sprinting to take advantage of the big purses on offer and has now got $8.8million in the bank for his connections.
For trainers that can turn a miler into a sprinter, the positives are obvious with huge prizemoney on offer and a wealth of speedy squibs to set the pace allowing for the strong finisher to come over the top.
A rocket ship sprinter like a Nature Strip at his top would leave the newly created miler sprinters in the dust, but there are precious few of them.
Another thought to ponder, once upon a time in a world with no Everest all three of these Everest placed horses this year probably would have been on a Cox Plate trail as that was the race to win for the best horse in the country.
Even if you weren’t a true 2000m horse, you’d work down the elite WFA path and have a crack because you wanted that chance at being the best of the best, sadly for the Cox Plate it’s going to be lessened with the passing of time by the absence of these quality milers being re-routed to sprinting.
